Kimberly Drew Books In Order

Publication Order of Pocket Change Collective Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Kimberly Drew is an American writer, activist, art lover, and art influencer.

She is known for being a former social media manager for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Fans of her work and followers may also be aware that she has the social media handle @MuseumMammy.

Those who follow her may be familiar with the release of her first book in 2020, This Is What I Know About Art. It was part of a special Penguin release of a children’s book series. She also collaborated with Jenna Wortham, a New York Times staff writer, on an anthology called Black Futures.

Kimberly grew up in Orange, New Jersey, and her family had many artists in it already, so she was in good company. She went to Link Community School in Newark, New Jersey. She graduated in 2008 from St. George’s School in Rhode Island.

From there Drew would go on to Northampton, Massachusetts, where she attended Smith College. There she studied math and engineering before going on to change things up and declare her double major in art history and Africana studies, with a concentration in museum studies. She would intern at the Studio Museum in Harlem with Thelma Golden during her second year at the college. This would go on to have an influence on her later concentration choice while also informing her career path. In 2012, Drew graduated from Smith.

In 2011, she was still in college and decided to start up a Tumblr blog called Black Contemporary Art. She would post about Black artists who would be featured on the websites of museums but were not digitally present on Tumblr. Drew and others made an effort to do this so that they would expand awareness of these artists and help to make them a ‘part of a recorded history’.

Drew has called herself a curator of black art and experiences. Her advocacy work pushing for racial equality in the art world has been recognized by Artsy. The artist has frequently spoken about how important it is to tie art to protests and activism, which felt all the more important in the aftermath of the murders of Black Americans at the time (George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery) and the shootings of Black Americans (Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade).

Upon graduating from Smith, Drew was part of the communications team working at Lehmann Maupin gallery. She has also been part of the communications team for Creative Time and Hyperallergic. In 2015, she was hired for the position of Associate Online Community Producer at NYC’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, which she held until leaving in late 2019.

She curated the Instagram account of the White House in 2016, during the South by South Lawn festival. That July she joined other writers and art historians in organizing Black Art Incubator, a two month long project that was a program that entailed art critiques, book exchanges, and panel discussions.

In 2018, she served as a model for the Chromat Spring/Summer 2019 runway as part of New York Fashion Week. She launched Black Power Lunch Hour in 2021, an online event series. She also started hosting a podcast on Hulu called ‘Your Attention Please’. In 2022 it was announced that Drew would be joining Pace Gallery as an associate director. She was also announced to be a part of the Committee on Arts and Culture, started by NYC City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.

Drew would eventually start up a connection with Jenna Wortham, a journalist, through direct messaging on Twitter. The result would be Drew coming on as a co-editor for the Black Futures anthology. The anthology was released after five years of work and features a variety of art forms from over one hundred Black creators that takes on the question of what it means to be ‘Black and alive, right now’. It was published in December 2020 by Random House’s One World imprint. Drew would release her first book that same year in June just a few months before, titled This Is What I Know About Art.

Drew was also the recipient of the inaugural Feminist Curator Award from AIR Gallery in 2016. That year she was listed as part of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts 100 List. She was picked to be one of 100 Influencers of Brooklyn Culture in 2017 by Brooklyn Magazine. She was given the Smith College Medal in 2020, an award that recognizes outstanding alumnae who have contributed to their communities.

Kimberly lives in Brooklyn, New York, where she continues to work and release new writing and art. She identifies as queer and her partner is a civil rights lawyer, Chase Strangio.

This is What I Know About Art is a 2020 nonfiction art memoir by Kimberly Drew and illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky. The book is aimed at young adults but can be read by anyone who enjoys art or learning more about culture.

The book is put out as part of the Pocket Change Collective, which was created out of a need for space to think, connect, and be yourself. Drew collaborates with Ashley Lukashevsky to create a conversation and a focus on art that should not be missed and in the process also puts forth the message that the art world has space for everyone.

Drew shows readers that art and protest are linked in this book from Pocket Change Collective, a series of small books from some of the top artists and activists today. Drew takes her experience in art through activism and issues forth a challenge to make space for change that we would like to see in the world. Get a copy of this book for yourself and don’t forget to let your friends– especially those passionate about art– know about it!

Black Futures is a 2020 collection of nonfiction essays by Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham. This book asks the question of what it ultimately means to be ‘Black and alive’, right now.

Drew and Wortham make a fantastic team as they collaborate on this collection of work that includes essays, photos, images, memes, recipes, poetry, tweets, dialogues, and more, all to help to try and tell the story of the world that Black creators are helping make today– a world that is imaginative, beautiful, radical, provocative, and unique.

With wonderful pieces and so much to dig into, don’t miss out on it for a single second more. Check out Black Futures by Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham today.